Media accreditation is strictly reserved for members of the press who represent a bona fide media organization[1].

Eligibility and supporting credentials

1. Journalists[2] are requested to provide an official letter of assignment from the Editor-in-Chief (or the News Editor for radio/TV). One letter per crew/editorial team will suffice. Editors-in-Chief and Bureau Chiefs should submit a letter from their Director. Please also complete this formand return it with the supporting credentials below:

print and online publications should be available to the general public and published at least 6 times a year by an organization whose principle business activity is publishing and which generally carries paid advertising;

Ø 2 copies of recent bylined articles published within the last 4 months.

Ø 2 copies of recent bylined articles or broadcasting material published within the last 4 months.

broadcast media should provide news and information programmes to the general public. Independent film and video production companies can only be accredited if officially mandated by a broadcast station via a letter of assignment;

Ø broadcasting material published within the last 4 months.

freelance journalists including photographers must provide clear documentation that they are on assignment for a specific news organization or publication. Evidence that they regularly supply journalistic content to recognized media may be acceptable in the absence of an assignment letter at the discretion of the ITU Media Relations Service.

Ø a valid assignment letter from the news organization or publication.

2. Bloggers may be granted accreditation if blog content is deemed relevant to the industry, contains news commentary, is regularly updated and made publicly available. Corporate bloggers are invited to register as participants. Please see attached Guidelines for Blogger Accreditation below for more details.

3. Analystsshouldfollow the telecommunications/ICT market; be currently employed as an industry analyst by an internationally recognized analyst house and report in one of the publications issued by the analyst house. Reports must be generally available to the public. Analysts working on reports that are circulated internally or to a select group of clients are not eligible for ITU accreditation. All Analysts are requested to provide an official letter of assignment and any of the following supporting documents:

· a recent copy of the page of the publication by the analyst house which provides the names of the analyst team and which lists the industry analyst seeking accreditation;

· copies of recently (within the last 6 months) published reports or articles where the industry analyst is credited.

Media accreditation is not granted to non-editorial staff working for a publishing house (i.e. management, marketing, advertising executives, etc); to researchers, authors and editors of directories; to the information outlets of governments, non-governmental organizations and private companies which are not first and foremost media organizations.

Process

ITU must be satisfied that anyone applying for accreditation is a professional journalist or analyst with a proven track record of reporting for bona fide media. Applications for accreditation are considered on a case-by-case basis and we reserve the right to request supplementary documentary evidence. The decisions of the ITU Media Relations Service are final.

Applicants will be notified by a confirmation letter sent to the e-mail account provided on the registration form.

To collect your badge, a valid passport or form of photo ID must be presented.

ITU is committed to working with independent 'new media' reporters and columnists who reach their audiences via blogs, podcasts, video blogs and other online media. These are the guidelines we use to determine whether to issue official media accreditation to independent online media representatives:

· We prefer to work with online media outlets that have an established track record covering our issues. Outlets should have been in continuous operation for at least six months and reach at least 20,000 visitors per month.

· ITU reserves the right to request traffic data from a third party (Sitemeter, Technorati, Feedburner, iTunes or equivalent) when considering your application. While the decision to grant access is not based solely on traffic/subscriber data, we ask that applicants provide sufficient transparency into their operations to help us make a fair and timely decision.

· Obtaining media accreditation for ITU events is an opportunity to meet and interact with key industry and political figures. While continued accreditation for ITU events is not directly contingent on producing coverage, owing to space limitations we may take this into consideration when processing future accreditation requests. Following any ITU event for which you are accredited, we therefore kindly request that you forward a link to your post/podcast/video blog to pressreg@itu.int.

· Bloggers who are granted access to ITU events are expected to act professionally. Those who do not maintain the standards expected of professional media representatives run the risk of having their accreditation withdrawn.

The final decision on all applications for media accreditation rests with ITU.